Steam Direct: Fee for self-publishing is $ 100

Valve has set the amount of the publication fee for Steam Direct, the successor to the Greenlight program. Per game that Indie developers want to publish, 100 dollars are required. Earlier in the conversation, sums were up to 5,000 US dollars.

The required sum, Valve says, should be low enough so that it does not become an obstacle for serious developers, but high enough to prevent misuse of the system. Originally, in internal considerations, the company writes to charge 500 US dollars. Compared to Ars Technica, Valve confirmed that the amount is only required as a kind of deposit; Developers get their dollars back as soon as the turnover of their game exceeds 1,000 US dollars.

The fee is designed to effectively prevent the use of barely functioning copy-paste games from standard engine assets and other scrap programs to flood the offer. However, the sum is not carved in stone. Valve emphasizes that Direct will need “some attempts” to “correct errors”, so further changes will follow as needed.

Innovations for curators

The charge remains only one of several announced measures against scrap games. In addition to Direct, improved shop algorithms are designed to provide users with comprehensible and good-looking recommendations that reflect their interests. At least in the concept of Valve also unknown but no bad games have a chance to spotlight – scrap is deposited in the dark of the huge offer.

Valve’s attention is drawn to the role of the curators in the current blog entry. The company is currently looking for “places where the human eye can be integrated into the steam algorithm”. The human factor is to ensure that the algorithm works as intended and that no interesting games are overlooked. Therefore, there will continue to be the possibility to influence the selection of game proposals by the system of curators followed. This option remains optional.

Curators will also be able to get more creative options for their referrals and, for example, have the ability to include YouTube videos or create personal recommendations lists with specific tips on topics or preferences. In addition, Valve continues to work on a system that allows publishers to provide potentially interested curators, i. Testers of the target group, simply to provide games for review.